1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device, and more particularly, to a display device to which a lenticular method is applied and capable of selectively displaying one of a two-dimensional (2D) image and a three-dimensional (3D) image.
2. Description of the Related Art
A demand for virtual reality in multimedia technologies increases. Also, 3D visualization of diagnosis and measurement is developing. Therefore, a demand for a display device that can display an image in a three-dimensional way increases.
The application of the 3D display technologies can apply to 3D displays for advertisements, 3D multimedia image display terminals for home use, 3D simulators and image display terminals for education and training, visualization image display terminals for various precise measurements and diagnosis, 3D image display terminals for medical use, 3D image display terminals for various supervision and controls, 3D image monitors for video conference and advertisements, 3D television sets for broadcasting, 3D image display terminals for education and entertainments, parts for manufacturing various special environments, and image devices for 3D games.
Technologies required for a general 3D display device include technologies for designing and manufacturing an optical plate for forming a visual field, for example, a lenticular lens plate or a microlens plate, and driving control technologies for realizing a pixel pattern that corresponds to visual field formation on a display device.
Methods for displaying a 3D image include methods using two (2) viewpoints (where an image for a left eye and an image for a right eye are displayed, respectively) and methods using multiple viewpoints (where binocular parallax image photographed at various directions are displayed). The methods using the multiple viewpoints have a disadvantage that the resolution is in inverse proportion to the number of viewpoints, but provide a greater degree of freedom in a viewing position, so that a natural 3D image can be viewed.
Representative non-glasses methods where image data for a left eye and a right eye are separated for the corresponding left eye and right eye include a parallax barrier method and a lenticular lens method.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a related art lenticular type display device. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a plurality of lenticular lenses are provided on an outer surface of a flat panel display 100 such as a liquid crystal display device (LCD). A lenticular lens substrate 110 is located such that the lenticular lenses 112 are arranged on a subpixel array of red, green, and blue subpixels constituting one color pixel in the flat panel display 100, so that horizontal and vertical parallaxes are realized.
FIG. 2 is a view explaining how a 3D image is realized using the lenticular method as illustrated in FIG. 1. A lenticular method realizing a 3D image in a flat panel display will be described with reference to FIG. 2.
The lenticular method uses a parallax principle of a left eye and a right eye, which enables a person to experience three-dimensional visualization of an object. Image data (at least two viewpoints) for a left eye and a right eye regarding an object are input to the flat panel display 100, and a plurality of these data are refracted by the lenticular lenses 112 and viewed at the corresponding left eye and right eye, respectively. The image data refracted by the lenticular lenses 112 are synthesized at a human brain, so that a 3D image is realized.
That is, according to a principle realizing a 3D image on a 2D plane screen, two image data are input on a screen, and an image for a left eye and an image for a right eye are separately viewed by the corresponding left eye and right eye, respectively.
However, a related art lenticular type 3D display device requires a fixed lens-shaped plate attached on the flat panel display 100 in order to display a 3D image. Therefore, this arrangement is only suitable for displaying a 3D image, but not suitable for displaying a 2D image. Because currently most of the image and video streams are for a 2D mode, the related art 3D display device is usable for limited 3D image and video streams and cannot be used to display conventional 2D image and video streams.